THE HAGUE, May 8 (Xinhua) -- ING had a significantly higher profit in the first quarter of 2013 compared to a year earlier, the Dutch bank and insurer reported on Wednesday.
Underlying net profits rose to 800 million euros (1 billion U.S. dollars) from 579 million euros a year earlier. The total net profit increased to 1.8 billion euros, compared to 728 million euros in the first quarter of 2012.
The result included 940 million euros in net gains on divestments, mostly from the sale of the life insurance business in Asia.
"ING has demonstrated steady progress so far this year on the group's restructuring, culminating with the successful IPO of our U.S. insurance business completed last week," Jan Hommen, CEO of ING Group, said in a press release.
"The transaction satisfied our agreement with the European Commission to sell 25 percent of the U.S. business before the year-end deadline, while raising 0.5 billion euros of proceeds for the group," added Hommen.
ING must divest its insurance and investment management businesses as part of a restructuring program agreed with the European Commission following Dutch state aid it received in 2008 and 2009. This process should be finished in 2018.
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